


To Go Back Home

by Ragarcye



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Adrinette, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Space, Angst, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Hurt Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Inspired by Miraculous Ladybug, LadyNoir - Freeform, Love, Love Confessions, Military, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Out of Character (in the beginning), Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2020-06-25 06:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19740043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ragarcye/pseuds/Ragarcye
Summary: Adrien smiled before lying down on the grass, looking up at the stars. They stay still as the wind whistles above them, and for a moment, the night breeze seemed slightly cooler.“You okay?”“Of course I’m okay, why’d you ask?”“It was weird! No cat puns? No stupid joke? No witty comeback?”“I’m just thinking.”“Thinking…”“Thinking about home.”* * *Miraculous Ladybug in space. Adrien and Marinette are in the military, each forced to put their lives on pause. Lightyears away from home, they have no choice than to rely on each other if they want to win the war against the Akumas.





	1. Prelude

“I’ve never been to school before. I’ve never had friends. It’s all new to me.”

“Well, you’re still lucky, your dad being the general and all, getting your lessons when you were a kid and making training easier for you.”

Adrien pouted. “Excuse me, I did not have such lessons.”

“Really?” Marinette rolled her eyes, “What about weapons training, fencing…”

“I mean like, technically those weren’t—”

“Mixed martial arts, chess…”

“How does chess make training easier for—”

“Languages, strategy games…”

“Now, that last one isn’t even a class.”

“Basic and advanced sciences, ethics and—”

“Okay! Okay! I get it!” Adrien quickly tickled Marinette and stopped her with a giggle.

“You silly cat!” She slapped him straight to the face.

Adrien drew back his hands and clutched his cheek. “Ow… What was that for?”

“To get you to stop, duh.”

Adrien smiled before lying down on the grass, looking up at the stars. They stay still as the wind whistles above them, and for a moment, the night breeze seemed slightly cooler.

“You okay?”

“Of course I’m okay, why’d you ask?”

“It was weird! No cat puns? No stupid joke? No witty comeback?”

“I’m just thinking.”

“Thinking…”

“Thinking about home.”


	2. Chapter 2

Pillars of smoke rose as far as the horizon; heavy ash filled the air, so much that you’d think black fog enveloped the whole planet. A respected silence filled the aircraft her platoon was riding; the only sound being the whirring of the vehicle, and it was starting to get on her nerves.

 _How old is this thing?_ She thought, as a voice spoke to her from her earpiece.

“Lieutenant, drop zone in two minutes.”

The lieutenant unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up, put a hand on the handrails of the aircraft. “Two minutes to the drop zone! Move! People, Move!”

Her voice echoed right before the noise of the shuffling soldiers standing up to prepare their gear and parachutes; metal boots clanged on the floor and each tap on their guns and parachutes made ripples across the room. All this noise with the distinct annoying whirring of the vehicle that was really starting to get to her.

“Hey Marc! How old is this aircraft? It’s so,” she paused to think, “broken. It’s so loud and you can barely hear these earpieces.”

“It’s been retired from service for a few decades, lieutenant. Just repaired recently, actually,” Marc replied from the cockpit.

“No wonder we’re losing the war, using equipment this ancient,” she muttered to herself.

“What was that, lieutenant?”

“Nothing. Must be the shitty signal.”

The end of the aircraft creaked opened. She tapped her earpiece to speak. “Remember, our mission is to extract the survivors of the city from the bunkers. Our platoon is tasked with extermination of the Akuma; and to protect the rear of the squads assisting the civilians to the aircrafts.”

“Squad leaders; Ivan, Sabrina, Mylene and Max, keep your squads together and report back when anything happens. Don’t act without orders from me or Captain Agreste. Helmets on, the atmosphere isn’t safe for breathing anymore. Now, move!”

In pairs, people started to jump off the aircraft carrying their guns in their bulky defensive suits, falling into the black fog. The lieutenant was the last one off.

She spoke to her earpiece before jumping. “Hey Marc, try not to crash this antique, and be ready for extraction.”

“Copy. And good luck, Marinette.”

She let herself fall off.

Marinette was used to the sensation of falling by now, as they’ve been planet hopping fighting on the frontlines in the war against the Akumas, and almost every single time they’d go to the battlefield, it was through an air drop.

The insanity of the last few years is just unbelievable. Three years ago, she was just on her first year in lycée, thinking that she’ll graduate in a few years and go to university to study fashion design.

Life had other plans.

Halfway through the year, the Akumas started to attack; and now, she was falling headfirst in a planet millions of light-years away from the space station she calls home.

She opened her parachute once she was close enough to the ground. In seconds, she was inside the black fog. She cursed at the non air-locked masks they were using. The filter took away the harmful chemicals in the air, but it didn’t do much for the odor of sulfur, along with the scent of burnt wood and metal.

Those around her were visually disgusted as well. From afar, she can vaguely make out Rose twisting her face in disgust, and Ivan seemingly about to throw up. If only puke didn’t block her field of vision, she would too; it was the worse smell they encountered in a planet thus far.

“Stay focused. Remember, the Akumas might be waiting just behind the smoke,” the voice of Adrien Agreste, the company’s captain, buzzed on her ear piece. He must’ve seen the facial expressions of his subordinates.

Eighty meters off the ground, and Marinette still couldn’t see the surface; she was starting to get concerned about the visibility. Above her, was the blurry image on the planet’s sun, slowly fading away.

Almost instantaneously, the hundred sixty soldiers of the company turned on their helmet’s lights. Marinette smiled at the dim lights, although it was rushed, they were trained well.

For a burning city, it was eerily quiet, Marinette noted. As planned, the squads grouped together as they slowly treaded the empty city. Empty was a good word to describe it, as it was practically obliterated. Would you even be able to call it urban warfare, if not even a single building remained standing?

Thankfully, it made their target easier to be located. The bunker’s location was identified with the beacon that shot a beam of light from the ground. With the beacon covered in dust and rubble, Marinette was honestly impressed it was still able to create a signal.

“Do not approach the bunker, but follow and guard the platoons tasked to assist the civilians,” Marinette reminded her platoon.

Heavy breaths and metal grinding were almost everything she could hear on the comms. Her subordinates must’ve started breathing through their mouths with the odor. It’s concerning though; the burnt smell, the building being reduced to pebbles and ashes, yet they still haven’t encountered the Akuma.

A piercing howl was heard in the distance, followed by a tower of flames.

“Platoons, move into position, the Akuma finally revealed itself,” Adrien quickly informed the company. “James’s unit will help assist the civilians into the aircrafts while Jesse’s unit will be on standby in the opposite side of the bunker in case there are Akumas that the radar didn’t detect.”

“Copy,” her fellow platoon leaders replied on the comms.

“Marinette, your unit is the closest with the Akuma. Your platoon will engage the Akuma hold it back until the civilians are evacuated. Kill it if you can. My unit will reinforce your unit, but it will take time to come from where we landed.”

“Copy,” she said, before tapping the side of her helmet to command her subordinates.

“You heard the Captain. Move to the Akuma and protect the rear from attack,” Marinette announced to her platoon, and as instructed, they started to run to space between the Akuma and the platoon running for the bunker.

“Max, get your long-range sniper ready.”

“Copy,” he said, as he and his squad stopped running and assembled the plasma canon.

“Sabrina, tell your squad to go around the Akuma, Ivan will create a distraction for the Akuma so you can take it from surprise from behind.”

“Copy,” the two sergeants replied.

“Mylene will protect the rear of the platoon running for the bunker, and intercept the Akuma after them. Mylene, I’ll stick with you.”

“Copy,” she said and followed Marinette.

At that point, Marinette still hadn’t seen the Akuma through the thick black fog, besides the tower of flame that announced its presence. She was just giving out commands based on the heat map on the bottom right side of her helmet, displaying the positions of all soldiers, the bunker, and the Akuma.

There was a whish of wind, and it cleared the smoke just enough to reveal the monster. She was mere strides away from the Akuma, and she grinded her teeth at the size of the thing; the platoon under her command might not be able to handle the thing.

It was in the form of a dire wolf, easily the size of an elephant. Its upper fur, or rather, where it should have been, was a raging fire that extended all the way to its tail; everything else was colored a dark ash grey. The claws attached to its legs were as big as her head, and its snout—

The Akuma tipped his snout upward to howl, and out came a column of fire.

 _Of course, it just had to breathe fire_ , Marinette thought.

It must have been barely jogging when her platoon was racing after it, because it suddenly strode forward to the platoon running after the bunker. Within a few seconds, it was blended back into the smoke, its location hidden if not for the heat map.

“Ivan! Now! The inhibitor satellite!”

The device served as an easy distraction for all Akumas, something about frequencies that she wasn’t able to fully understand when the science department explained it to them, but it does its job well. Perhaps even too well, sometimes.

The dot on her helmet’s screen suddenly reversed, moving directly to where Ivan placed the distraction for the Akuma, and directly through where Marinette’s squad is standing.

“Jump to the side!” She barely managed to scream before the wolf zoomed over and crushed two of the squad members.

“Ivan! Get out there! The Akuma is too quick! Max! Fire at Ivan’s squadron location!”

“But—”

“Do it!”

Footsteps of metal boots against pebbles, dirt and ash were heard running while a pulsating sound rapidly grew louder until—

BANG!

A bullet of blinding concentrated plasma at near light speed is shot, the displaced air causing a good area of the fog to dissipate. Soon, most of the battlefield was visible.

Marinette could see Ivan and Sabrina’s squads running toward their position, and Max’s squadron with the plasma cannon. The defensive formation of the platoon guarding the other side of the bunker was in sight, as well Agreste’s platoon that were rushing to help them. She could see their aircrafts landing beside the beacon and the soldiers guiding the survivors to their safety.

Standing at the farthest from the bunker, was the Akuma, facing Max’s squad and their cannon; the fire on its back blazing thrice from before, and a gaping hole where its left eye should be, dripping a disgusting purple liquid.

It stood for a few seconds, its head twitching around, scanning the surroundings with its remaining eye, before putting its attention back to Max’s squad, a good hundred meters away.

It strode forward, leaving a trail of flames in its footsteps. Before Marinette could even talk, the Akuma had destroyed the cannon and had a squad member hanging from its claws.

“AGRESTE! GET DONE WITH IT!” She screamed in horror as she saw the Akuma breathed fire onto four other soldiers and impaled another two.

“Almost. We’re almost there,” the captain simply replied.

The Akuma howled out another column of fire, before putting its front two paws on another two squad members, crushing their bones, before breathing out a flame for each of them.

From a good distance, Marinette could see Max left alone, shaking, beside scraps of what used to be the plasma cannon.

“Here!” Agreste exclaimed on the comms, as another plasma laser shot from behind her. It hit the wolf in its neck, decapitating it completely. The Akuma fell to its side, and faded into ashes, to be carried away by the wind, leaving a cracked purple gem; the Akuma’s life force.

It was lucky that the cannon even managed to graze the gem, with its spherical shape of still intact. However, Max wasn’t as lucky, whose body continued to burn, muscle and flesh ignited by the Akuma.

Another laser shot the gem and pulverized it completely, leaving no chance for it whatsoever.

* * *

Adrien was frustrated at himself for the casualties of the last encounter, and knew his father would be too. Marinette was his best on-field strategist, and he had confidence in her to kill the Akuma, but the speed of the monster wasn’t mentioned in their briefing and it was his fault for underestimating it and for his lacking foresight.

She managed to get it done, but his faults led to the annihilation of more than a fourth of Marinette’s platoon, thinking that it was safer to have two platoons on standby in case there was a hidden Akuma in the smoke, instead of engaging with the Akuma directly.

The company he commands, formed by four platoons with forty members each, lost twelve soldiers because of his mistake. You can chalk it up as just twelve people, but the army’s man power was slowly starting to decline; they’ve even resorted to drafting students just out collège. Able children as young as fifteen have been enlisted for training, Adrien and Marinette included.

There were those that used their family’s social standing to escape the system. Such was the example of Adrien’s childhood friend, Chloe Bourgeois, whose Father was the mayor of Paris.

Even though Adrien’s family is considerably wealthy, with his father being a five-star general, he was forced to enlist.

“Hey dude, don’t worry about it,” his best friend Nino said in their call over the comms, a fellow military captain.

He stepped off the aircraft that extracted his surviving troops from the planet. “Yeah... thanks Nino, but my father’s not going to say that.”

“At least it was only twelve casualties! It’s not like—”

“Twelve casualties and five injured, incapable of combat.”

“As I was saying,” Nino coughed, “it’s not like it’s the worst thing that’s happened in the war. At worst, the general will only be disappointed.”

Adrien sighed as walked to the edge of the hangar. “You don’t know my father, Nino. He doesn’t permit failure.”

“Whatever you say, dude, but c’mon, you’re already nineteen and you’re still thinking about your dad? Anyways, I need to prepare for my company’s encounter later, so I’m gonna have to leave. Let’s catch up in person tomorrow.”

“Copy,” Adrien said, as he heard the call with Nino disconnecting.

At the edge of the hangar was a window that extended the length of the aerodrome. Adrien looked out, and saw the planet where they came from below. Besides the small dots that revealed the rusty color of the planet’s surface caused cannons the army fired with each encounter; everything was covered in a black cloud.

He still couldn’t imagine the destruction caused by the fighting. Earlier that day, hundreds of wolf-type Akumas started to appear from different parts of the planet, too many for individual military missions, so they were forced to use a nuclear attack on the whole planet, killing most of the Akumas in the process.

They sent signals to the cities an hour before the bombs dropped, and the plan was to conduct rescue missions after three hours of the bombs dropped; enough time to let the radiation and fallout of the bombings to settle, and just before the few surviving Akumas managed to dig their way into the bunkers.

Adrien grew up in a space station of the united human colonies, the UHC, not one of the independent nations that live in the planets.

If that amount of destruction was encountered by one of the space stations of the colony, it’d instantaneously combust, and there’d be no traces but metal debris, floating in the space where it once was.

After the alliance was established between most independent nations and the UHC, he had come to realize what true destruction looks like.

Massive space station consumed by the very black holes that fueled them, planets eradicated from existence within a matter of seconds, may that be though a nuclear attack, synthetic supernovas, or orbital satellite cannons; trillion of people dead, collateral for trying to get rid of the Akumas.

They’ve brought just as much damage as the Akumas did, in efforts to stop them.

“Captain.” He turned around to see Marinette in a salute.

“At ease,” He said, and she put her arm down. “Yes, lieutenant?”

“On behalf of my platoon, I request that we are excluded from the next encounter because of the casualties.”

Adrien tried to make out a smile at her. “You say this after shouting at me, your superior, a while ago?”

“Sir, I need to apologize, but it was a matter of—”

“Relax lieutenant, I was just joking with you,” Adrien sighed. It was one thing after the other, and he needed to let out some steam, so he let himself be informal. “Marinette, can’t it wait until tomorrow? We’ve just arrived from a battle.”

“Sir, my men are wounded and terrified. It would help them rest better if they knew that we’ll disengage from battle,” Marinette spoke without any remorse for her superior’s fatigue.

“Look down, Marinette,” Adrien pointed to the window, and Marinette follows. “You see that little dot over there? That’s where we were a while ago. If it weren’t for your command, that little speck wouldn’t even be there.”

“What are you trying to say, captain?”

“That won’t be there without your unit.”

“And?”

“Look, we can’t afford to even have a single platoon less.”

“Sir, I mean no disrespect but half of my platoon members are minors. Right now, they’re at their quarters, probably huddled together in fear. Their friends just died, comrades they spent a year or two with; they can’t go back to the battlefield.”

Adrien looked at the black planet, thinking.

He took a breath before he spoke. “Fine, you are permitted to rest during the next encounter. However, you as a lieutenant must assess the trainees on-board the space station to see who’s the most capable to replace the deceased and injured in your platoon.”

“Thank you, captain.” Marinette said before giving a salute and walking away.

“And Marinette,” Adrien suddenly said before Marinette was too far. She turned around a looked at him. “I need to apologize as well for what happened down there. I’ll take full responsibility for the consequences of my strategy and leadership.”

She simply nodded politely, before walking away from him.

Adrien took another sigh. One wouldn’t think they used to be training buddies with how cold they were to each other nowadays; back at the academy, he and Marinette were always cracking jokes and laughing with each other, doing their best to keep themselves sane. He missed those times, but well, they need to act what’s expected of them, formal and rigid.

Sometimes, he’s tempted to just walk up to her and ask her how she’s doing, but he never went through with his impulses. Marinette changed so much, for the better, and she holds herself so well, leaving no space for everyday chitchat, but Adrien doesn’t know why he still feels worried for her.

In the corner of the hangar, in one of the safest spaceships of the colony, packed with aircrafts and the noisy repairs, Adrien felt scared and lonely; a reminder that he too, was just barely an adult.

Adrien looked back down at the ruined planet underneath them before walking away.

* * *

Marinette was right about her assumptions.

She found her subordinates in their quarters, a long spacious room with ten bunk beds on either side. They were in clumps of a few people each, those who managed to compose themselves—although still looking pretty knocked up—were consoling those who were bawling their eyes out. They didn’t even notice her enter the room.

To be honest, when she was first drafted in the army, she was very uncomfortable sleeping in mixed quarters like these where male and female soldiers stayed together after living comfortably in her bedroom, alone, for her whole life. Regretfully, she had the training, missions and Akuma to worry about, and didn’t have time to think about her sleeping situation.

She looked at her subordinates. Although she learned to keep calm and move forward, Marinette understood the feeling of losing her friends and comrades; Nathaniel, Juleka, and now, Max.

“Platoon, ATTENTION!” She finally called.

They scrambled into formation. Some platoon leaders or lieutenants as herself would scold and even punish subordinates who were sloppy with their answers or salute. Marinette was a bit more humane.

“Stand at ease.” She said, and they followed into formation.

“Look, I know you guys are still mourning your comrades, but this is war, and there is no time for scattered emotions; you must always be focused and ready for attack,” she said in the kindest way that she could.

Marinette walked the length of the room, before speaking again. “I was the same when I was at your position, crying on the daily, but there’s a point when you realize crying isn’t going to save anyone. Without you, without us, our friends and families back home will be dead, our houses broken, the space stations we live in, annihilated into nothing but floating rubble in space.”

She stopped at the end of the room. “There’s a point where you’d realize that the best way you can honor their sacrifice would be to stay focused in the war.”

Sniffles and muffled weeping can be heard. Marinette sighed.

“I’ve gotten permission from the captain for this platoon’s exclusion in the company’s next mission. If we throw you in a mission right now, half of you will freeze on your feet, and the other half will be too busy taking care of those too scared, becoming a liability.”

She walked back to the entrance, stopping at the beds in the middle, where Max and his squad members slept. Marinette softly tapped the bed closest to her.

“Those who slept in these beds will be missed, but they will not be the ones fighting the war. You will,” she paused, and looked around, making sure that everyone was listening. “So be focused; if not for yourself, for your fallen comrades, for your family, homeland, or whatever worth fighting for.”

She continued to walk until the edge of the door, stopping before she was out of the room. “Rest well tonight, tomorrow might be kinder.”

Marinette walked out of the room, and before the door closed, she could hear others breaking into tears. She grits her teeth as her feet paced away. Soon she was jogging, before turning into a full-on sprint.

She took a few turns going to her private quarters, moving fast enough that those who passed her couldn’t see her face properly. Finally, she entered her room, barely enough for a desk, a bed, and a locker. She threw herself on her bed, cuddled her only pillow, and buried her face into it.

Marinette hoped the pillow was enough muffle her wails.

Her statement about crying a while ago? That was a lie, Marinette still cried, almost daily. She never got over everything that was happening.

With her closest friends dying one by one, there isn’t anyone she could talk to, and crying seemed to be the only way to let all out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a bunch of changes to make the space element fitting for the show, so I hope it doesn't bother anyone too much. This was also my first time writing fan fiction so I'm sure there are still aspects I can improve and that again, it doesn't bother anyone too much :)
> 
> EDIT: Just made a revision of the first chapter. Thank you for the feedback, especially with u/KwibKwib pointing out plot holes that I only got to fixing now. Will probably finish post the second chapter soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Adrien woke up to the blaring siren of the alarm in his room. “All commissioned officers, report to the ship’s command center immediately. I repeat, all commissioned officers, report to the ship’s command center immediately.”

He checked the tablet under his bed to see if the officers at the command center sent them a briefing, but nada; he’d have to follow orders and go to the bridge. In a few seconds, he was fully clothed and left his room.

Flashing red lights lit the packed hallways that led to the bridge, officers like him rushing to see what was happening.

“Formation! Formation!” Adrien could hear someone shout in front of him.

It was difficult to look for the position he needed to stand in, with the distracting red light and others shoving, but he managed to find where he was supposed to stand.

“Officers, ATTENSION!” The colonel called to them.

If it were under better conditions, Adrien would’ve said that he was glad to see his childhood friend, Colonel Kagami’s demanding scowl.

“According to original plan, we were supposed to depart the orbit of this planet at zero six hundred hours tomorrow, conducting rescue missions today, but there has been another wave of akumatizations. We need to leave the planet. If we’re going to save civilians, we need to do it now.”

The lieutenant colonels right below her shouted complained as quickly as she finished. Things like how they were going to conduct rescue ops with the visibility in the atmosphere, subordinates being physically unfit after getting injured in missions yesterday, the maintenance of plasma weapons and—

“QUIET!” Almost as if a wave moved across the room, people shouting and whispering among themselves were instantaneously silenced.

“Most of you are only commissioned because of the sudden war and lack of personnel, but this is the army, and there is no need of unruly children. Officers, the new batch of Akumas are aerial-type, and by estimates of the science department, these aerial Akumas will be attacking this mothership in three hours; enough time to rescue more than half of the remaining bunkers if all units join the operation. You can stay here, embarrassing your respective homelands, or fight like the UHC needs you too.”

She stared at the lieutenant colonels standing close to her.

“Who will disobey my orders?”

No one dared to speak.

“Good. Prepare your units for extractions. Pilots have been briefed while you kids were whining. All requests for disengagement are terminated because of the emergency and be back by zero seven hundred hours; we will conduct another batch of nuking.”

Adrien wanted to sigh. He’ll have to apologize to Marinette once this was all over.

“Leave and prepare with your separate units, you are dismissed. Now, MOVE IT!”

* * *

Marinette knew what she had to do, but it didn’t mean she wanted to do it. She’ll have to go to her platoon and prepare for combat, but she’s wary of the fact that they didn’t have enough time to grieve because of the sudden Akuma emergency.

To be honest, she thinks she hadn’t had enough time as well.

Once she was out of the bridge after the colonel’s briefing, she went directly to her platoon. When she got there and opened the door, she saw each of them were fully dressed and armored; surprisingly ready for battle.

“Attention!” She called, and her platoon readily moved into formation. “Report status.”

Mylene answered. “Briefed and ready for combat, mam!”

“Good. We’ll go back to battle, so make the most it. Take this chance to honor your comrades. Let’s go!”

By pairs, they ran to the aerodrome and entered the same antique-like aircraft that they rode yesterday, the whirring of the engine louder than yesterday. A certain heaviness was felt when the aircraft levitated followed by the sensation of dizziness caused by the aircraft rocketing to the planet’s surface, the sudden jerk from inertia.

After them, the aircraft of Captain Agreste and other lieutenants of their company followed.

They speeded to the planet’s atmosphere smoothly, or at least, as smoothly as you could get flying in a loosely repaired aircraft with a defective engine. Within minutes, they were at airdrop altitude, hovering to the location of the bunker they were assigned to.

* * *

“Captain, our airship is being cut off from the others,” Adrien received a report from the pilot, just before black claws pierced through the ceiling.

Those nearby equipped with energy pistols shot at the Akuma’s talons. It bled purple, then came a painful screech, followed by the talons quickly removing themselves, but not without slinging Adrien’s aircraft downwards.

“We’re going down!” The pilot yelled at everybody through the comms before opening the aircraft’s hatch. In a hasty mess, people who could were jumping down, Adrien was lucky being able to grab both a mask and parachute. He jumped off as well.

As his troops floated down, they were still shooting at the Akuma, twice the size of their aircraft, a blurry shadow to Adrien’s eyes with how its wings covered the sun. They watched as it sped away to chase after the other aircrafts.

 _Well, shit._ Adrien thought. They’ve just made it into the atmosphere and they’ve already encountered and lost to an Akuma.

“Pilot, contact other aircrafts about our status. Sergeants, report?”

A subordinate answered him. “Half of the platoon came down with the aircraft sir, we’re down to twenty.”

“Salvaged equipment?”

“Only basic defense gear and two plasma cannons. We’re still opening the other crates.”

On the mini-map being displayed in the corner of his helmet, the Bunker they were assigned to was still hundreds of kilometers away. With everything on the surface annihilated by their nuclear attack, they were basically in the middle of nowhere.

“Those who’ve landed, take a defensive position and activate a distress call to the mothership.”

With the wings of the Akumas pushing the air around, it cleared the black smoke just enough that Adrien got his first good look of the destruction.

The rusty clearing that essential has nothing for thousands of miles in every direction used to be a bustling metropolitan. The planet they were on was in the top hundred most populated planets in the galaxy, and it just so happened to be unfortunate that it was close to the frontlines.

It was hard to believe that just a week ago, the ground where Adrien just landed in was probably where a sky scraper stood, or possibly a park; it might have even been a home.

The twenty-one of them remaining soldiers made a circular defensive position, where they were using empty crates and the ship’s debris to make a barricade and the communicator in the middle. He assigned one of his two remaining sergeants to contact the officer in the mothership, with a recently failed mission, he’s not so keen on reporting another one.

Adrien looked at his clock. They were given one and a half hour to execute the operation, an hour for travel to the assigned bunker and back, and a fifteen minutes buffer in case something goes wrong before the bombing at seven ‘o clock. They left the mothership at four, crash landed at four fifteen, and it was already five thirty. Hopefully, there’s just enough time for a passing aircraft to pick them up.

“Sir?”

“Yes, sergeant?”

“The officer at the mothership said that the Akumas concentrated themselves on this specific area of the planet, so most units are without any encounter and are already returning to the mothership and will come back down for a second trip.”

He paused and listened again on the communicator. “Estimated time of pickup is at zero six hundred hours,” the sergeant continued.

“Good.” Adrien said as he inserted himself into their defensive circle.

They had nothing to do but wait, keep themselves on alert.

Besides the loud winds caused by the Akuma’s wings from far away, lashing at the skies above them, they were silent as they just watched the rusty ground of planet, trying to ignore the sulfur’s stench that didn’t go away with the smoke. And they continued to wait.

“What was that?” Adrien heard a squad member say.

“What do you mean what was that?”

“Listen.”

He did just so, hearing a rumbling behind them. He stood up and looked to his back, tapped his mask to activate the binoculars that came with it.

_Shit._

It was not a rumble, but the booming of each quick consecutive step of what was running towards them: another Akuma, identical to the one that they struggled with yesterday. It had the same elephant size, ash grey fur and flames, the same speed that killed a fourth of Marinette’s platoon.

“Prepare the plasma cannons! Scatter!”

Seeing the soldiers break away from the defensive position, the Akuma stopped to howl, its snout tipping upwards and creating a column of fire. Before the fire that it created was extinguished by the wind, it jumped up, essentially setting its whole body on fire, the flames on his back, seeming to triple in size. It ran again.

Adrien and three others used thermal rifles, the only other long-range weapons they found in the crates, and shot at the Akuma, but it was futile, the Akuma easily dodging each time they shot.

“Plasma cannon ready! Firing in—”

“Stop! You’ll miss!” Adrien started running against the Akuma, to meet it.

“What are you doing?!”

“Fire at my position when the Akuma attacks me!”

“But you’re—”

“Trust me!”

He ran carrying the thermal rifle, making sure he kept it reloaded. There was a trick with guns, thermal ones specifically, that he discovered when his father was giving him weapons training. Although his father hated it, calling the trick without dirty, it was one of the only times the he applauded Adrien, acknowledging the advantage it has in combat in the battlefield.

Seconds before the Akuma was close enough to bite his head, he kneeled down and setup the rifle.

Thermal rifles work by shooting a condensed chunk of molecules that vibrate at the atomic level; when a shot hits a target, the vibrating molecules then continue to vibrate so it’s able to pierce through the target, unlike the primitive bullets that stops abruptly when it hits something solid.

If then, say, a large amount of these vibrating molecules was to be shot at the same time, vibrating its way through the air, it would make the air just hot enough that it serves as a catalyst for the oxygen in air to spontaneously combust…

Improvised explosion.

The wolf was just meters away, and Adrien threw his modified rifle to the Akuma, setup with a delay and a broken chamber.

BOOM!

A heavy wind pushed on Adrien. He looked at where the Akuma was, but it was covered by the smoke from the explosion.

Suddenly, a whip of flames suddenly comes out of the black fumes and smacked Adrien at his chest to the side, burning a part of his suit. He was hit by the Akuma’s tail.

His troops on the plasma cannons didn’t hesitate and shot the two lasers at the fumes, and a howl was received in return.

The smoke cleared. The Akuma was still standing, its fur completely gone, replaced by the flames that raged several stories tall. If the explosion or plasma cannons did any damage, they wouldn’t know, for the Akuma was now a fire that took a shape of a wolf.

After taking a second to observe the environment, the Akuma strode forward to one of the cannons, taking a bite and scrapping the weapon, setting his troops on fire in the process.

“Where do I aim?!”

“I don’t know! Just shoot!”

The other plasma cannon shot again, and the flame that was the Akuma effortlessly dodged it while it dashed to where the shot came from. Its new fiery form was hard to aim at, the body and weak points hidden in the flames.

“No!” Adrien was left frozen, there was nothing that he could do.

The Akuma heaved a flame that engulfed almost everyone, clawing those who were able to get away. The wolf ate his troops straight down, not leaving even a single bone, and Adrien was forced to look. Being the farthest away, he was saved for last.

It’s common knowledge that Akumas ate humans to get stronger. Unlike the weaker wolf-type they faced yesterday, this more powerful Akuma must’ve gotten to a bunker with a broken vault, a buffet for a monster like it. With his troop eaten, the Akuma will get more stronger, and Adrien doesn’t even have weapon to defend himself.

He ran away.

There was nothing else he could do, and it might be cowardice, but he still ran away. Without the communicator, he had no way to contact the mothership, and the planet was going to be nuked again, along with him.

 _What’s so bad about asking for another hour to live?_ Adrien thought to himself while he ran. If he stayed there, the Akuma was going to kill him anyway, better to leave than stay and let the Akuma get just a little bit stronger with it eating him.

He didn’t stop running; even when he couldn’t see the Akuma anymore, he continued to run, then he tripped, screaming at the pain when he hit the ground.

He only realized after the momentary rest from adrenaline caused by tripping, how much the burn and impact of being whipped by the Akuma’s tail hurt. Adrien let himself stay there on the ground.

 _This is far enough,_ he thought.

“Hello?!”

He heard a voice, and Adrien chuckled at the thought that he’s now having hallucinations.

“How rude are you? First, you trip on me, and now you’re laughing. Hmph!”

Adrien looked behind him to see a small black kitten, or is it a mouse? Hamster? No matter what the thing was, the thing shocked Adrien enough to warrant a scream and scramble to sit up.

“What are you?”

“Plagg, nice to meet you. Tell me, have you seen an Adrien Agreste around here?” The thing scuttled around looking at all directions.

“Um… that’s me?” Adrien said, not sure what to do.

“Great! So since you’re here, wear this ring and—"

“Where’d you come from?” Adrien cut off what the little thing saying.

“I, came from that box, which you were stupid enough not to notice and trip on. Get it?” Plagg looked at Adrien, annoyed.

Adrien started to laugh.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because I’m going insane. I’m so insane, in fact, that the universe decided that I needed a hallucination to keep me company. You, know, I had black cat who looks just like you back home. You’re the perfect hallucination!”

Plagg just stared at Adrien judgingly while he continued to laugh.

“Ha, ha, ha. You good now?”

Adrien brought his eyebrows together. “You’re not a hallucination?” Adrien reached forward and poked Plagg in the belly. “Holy shit! You’re real!”

“Very funny, thinking that a hallucination could capture my greatness,” Plagg looked at Adrien with his tiny arms crossed. “Of course I’m real!”

“What do you want from me? Why were you looking for me?”

“Look, I’m a Kwami, I grant powers, yours is the power of destruction, got it?” He told Adrien with mocking dead eyes. Adrien shook his head.

“Good,” Plagg said as looked around again. “There’s no food here, huh. Wear the ring and get this over with. I’m starving.”

“Um…” Adrien was left speechless; he didn’t know what to say.

“Take the ring in the ground over there, beside the box. Master chose you, so there should be something redeemable about you. Wear it and you’ll have the power to destroy anything.”

“Destroy anything? Isn’t that dangerous? I joined the army to protect, not destroy.”

“Blah, blah, blah, all of you military guys go on and on about honor and pride, but if you actually want to save people, you need power and I can give you that. Deal?” Plagg extended his teeny arm.

“I’ll be able to defeat the Akumas?”

“Sure.”

“All by myself?”

“Go ahead.”

Adrien thought about it. He doesn’t like destruction. The only reason he gave into his father convincing him to join the army was the fact that he wanted to protect the things he cared about. If Plagg is really the power-giving mouse-thing that he says he is, then what’s stopping him from making a deal?

 _Even if the power is destruction, I’m going to die anyways. As long as I could save people..._ He said to himself.

Adrien tried his best to make a broken smile as he extended his pinkie to Plagg’s tiny arms. “Deal.”

“Great!” Plagg spun around, possibly with joy, Adrien wasn’t sure why.

“What do I do?” He asked.

“You see that box with the Chinese symbols on it? The one you tripped on with a silver ring beside it?”

“Chinese? What’s—”

“Don’t mind that, what’s important is you wear the ring.” Adrien crawled forward and put the ring on his finger. Plagg continued, “That’s what allows me to give you your powers, which are basically strength, speed, a staff, rocket boots and special move.”

“Special move?”

Plagg smiled demonically. “Say ‘cataclysm’ and touch whatever you want to destroy, then poof, gone; just like how tasty camembert disappears so quickly.”

Adrien studied the silver ring. “There’s no buttons, how does it activate?”

“You say ‘claws out’ and you can use your powers. When you want to take it off, say ‘claws in.’ Also, I disappear when you use your powers, so there’s that.”

“Why’d you have to disappear?”

“I don’t know, ask Thomas.”

“Thomas?”

“Exactly. No one knows. So, are you going to try your powers or what?”

Adrien took a deep breath. If he wasn’t hallucinating—which he still hadn’t eliminated as an explanation for what’s happening—then it was his opportunity for his revenge. His whole platoon was annihilated, and he hadn’t heard from his lieutenants. He wondered how Marinette was doing, back on the battlefield right after asking to be left out.

Adrien won’t be able to forgive himself if something happened to his subordinates, especially when he could’ve done something. He wants this.

“Plagg, claws out!”

Plagg was sucked into the silver ring, turning it black with a green insignia of a cat’s paw on it. Adrien’s body was covered in a bright green light. A sensation that he couldn’t explain coursed through him, from his toes all the way to his head, replacing his torn combat gear with a skimpy whole-body black leather jump suit; compete with a mask that covered his eyes, an oversized belt as tail, cat ears, and a bell on his collar.

The pain from his injuries disappeared, and he realized that his injuries were gone as well, but he was cringing at the corny cat costume.

“Um…”

 _Fine, you ungrateful kid._ He heard something talk in the back of his head which he assumed was Plagg.

The black jump suit suddenly felt cold, the bright green light returning, transforming the leather jumpsuit into a military-grade combat suit, short sleeved, just like how he likes it. The zipper was loosely opened around the collar as a plain black sash wrapped around his waist, a staff tucked in it, and the cloth over extending on one side.

His mask became metal, the see-through holes becoming heavy-duty glass tainted green. Adrien was also paired with military boots and gloves, as well as arm sleeves that ensured the parts of his arms the suit didn’t cover were still well protected.

Lastly, cat ears.

“You really like the cat ears, don’t you, Plagg?”

He didn’t answer back. Adrien didn’t waste another moment attempting to communicate with Kwami, and tried to run forward with costume.

Everything feels so quick. Just minutes ago, he had accepted dying alone in a barren planet, and now he was having the time of his life.

Adrien felt like he was on a rollercoaster and contemplated screaming, before realizing he had full control of his movements. He estimated he was going twice the speed of how their aircraft flew, yet his mobility was way quicker, able to turn around in a split second.

“WooHoo!” For the first time in what feels like forever, Adrien felt at ease.

 _Let’s try this out_ , he thought as his combat boots lit green and projected him in the sky. He was hovering, just like how their aircrafts were, and he could see everything: the farthest mountains in the distance, the clouds of smoke that still hadn’t dissipated, and the flaming Akuma they fought a while ago, still busy gobbling his troops.

 _There._ Adrien noted as he directed his boots to propel him in the Akuma’s direction. Practice time is that’s over, time to come back to reality.

Adrien grabbed hold of the metal staff tucked to his waist. He held it with two hands as he hit it on the ground to stop his momentum once he landed.

Compared to how he remembered the Akuma, it felt like it tripled in size, now as big as a small drone they use for pilot training, its flames nearly touching the clouds. Adrien couldn’t help but smile.

The Akuma looked up from its meal, staring at Adrien and growling.

“Hey buddy! Good to see that you stronger!” Adrien took a running start. “It’ll make it a lot more satisfying when I finally kill you!” He took the staff and extended it forwards several times its original length, hitting the Akuma in the very center of the flame.

Adrien didn’t know what he hit, but the sharp howl that followed confirmed his attack brought damage.

The wolf-shaped flame magnified, turning into a bright blue. It charged after Adrien with a speed comparable to their aircrafts, but he was faster, dodging every attempt the Akuma had to bite him as he led them away from the bodies of his subordinates.

He felt the heat of the flaming wolf behind him, and decided to hit his staff on the ground again, abruptly firing him into the sky. Adrien looked back down to see that the Akuma had jumped after him, the wolf’s jaw wide open, sharp teeth ready to bite him.

A grin formed on Adrien’s face.

“Cataclysm!”

Adrien pointed his combat boots to the sky, and activated it, projecting himself to the Akuma.

A ball was forming in his palm, a black hole, empty of light and full of nothingness. He dodged the Akuma’s chomp, going underneath its snout and shoving the black hole through the flames and into the neck, clawing the wolf’s skin all the way to the ground, unbothered by the blue fire.

Before he landed, Adrien turned to the side, and looked at the Akuma as it fell down. The flames were being extinguished as the wolf turned into dust, blown away by the wind.

“Not much of a hotshot, now, eh?” Adrien said before the Akuma was completely gone.

The gem was left there, floating, falling down and cracking by itself once the wolf was nothing but ashes.

He ran back to his subordinates, checking if any of them were still alive. Their equipment still burning, and cinder was scattered on the grounds.

“Is anyone still there?” He called out. No one replied. “Plagg, claws in.”

A flashing green light covered him again, removing the combat suit from head to toe, returning his tattered military suit and his wounds, along with the pain that came with it. Adrien fell to the ground.

“Mhmm, nothing like a good exercise.” Plagg stretched out his teeny arms once it was out of the ring. “I’m tired, do you have any food?” Plagg exclaimed before glancing at Adrien on the ground. “Adrien! Are you alright?” The Kwami worryingly asked before patting his head.

“I’m alright Plagg, I just forgot that the injury was a thing because of the transformation,” Adrien said before pulling himself up. “I still need to check on my subordinates.”

He looked around the battlefield to his troops, some were left with nothing but a single limb, bones, or a severed head, all burnt. He counted the bodies in total, and a few were missing, in fact, those with remaining body parts were still lucky, at least some part of them will return to their families; but he still needed to find the communicator, even just the remains of it will do, as long as he could still hotwire it to work.

“Damn, that Akuma really did a number, huh.” Plagg moved around searching for food. “Yay! Canned goods! Not as good as cheese, but this will do. Why do you have these in a military aircraft?”

“It’s for the civilians we were supposed to pick up.” Adrien continued searching. “Here!”

It’s a miracle that the communicator was left unscathed; he was easily able to send a signal that confirmed the extraction point without needing to repair it. It was still just six ten, so he thinks he’ll be able to be picked up on time. Adrien sat back down, trying his best to ignore the burns on his chest.

“Plagg?”

“Yoishesh?” He responded, floating back up with his mouth stuffed. He gulped it down before speaking again. “I’m not gonna lie, your fish here is also pretty good! Anyways, what were you saying?”

“Why were you in the middle of nowhere?”

“You mean where you found me?” Plagg chugged another fish from the can he found.

“Yeah.”

“The master put it there. The guardian of the miraculous that protects the Miraculous. He knew you were going to trip on me, so he left it there for you to find it.”

Adrien lied down, too fatigued to continue sitting up. “Can I meet him?”

“When the time is right, kid. I’m sure he’ll even come to find you.” And again, Plagg gulped down another fish before lying down beside Adrien. “You have other things to worry about.”

“Like what?”

“Like that,” Plagg pointed to an area in the sky and Adrien looked to see an aircraft crashing with an aerial-type Akuma following it, possibly the same one that crashed their aircraft a while ago.

“That’s Marinette’s aircraft!”

“So, are you going to do anything about it?” Plagg tilted his head in question. Adrien simply nodded in reply.

“Plagg, claws out!”

* * *

To say that Marinette was nervous was an understatement.

Once the other aircrafts were cut off from them, they were the only aircraft left to extract the civilians from the bunker. Her units have always been tasked with defending those who saved with the civilians, not helping the civilians directly.

The fact that all of them now rode a single cramped aircraft was something new to her; equipment and people bumping against one another with each turbulent jolt. She didn’t know how the others managed with the pressure of keeping the civilians calm and safe, but she bit her lip and held her fear in. After information of Captain Agreste’s and the other two lieutenants’ aircrafts crashes being relayed, she was at the edge of terror. The civilians were already shaking in fear, what more if the highest-ranking officer in the aircraft was shaking in fear as well?

She happened to glimpse out the aircraft’s window to check on the planet’s surface, and saw the rusty ground underneath.

 _No smoke?_ She thought to herself, right before the aircraft shook, dislodging their weapons and scattering them on the aircraft’s floor. Some of the civilians screamed, and others were visibly crying.

A few of her subordinates unhinged their seatbelts and organized the gear that was still jumping around, trying their best to prevent civilian injury.

The aircraft won’t stop shaking; the people inside were being pushed around, and it felt like each time they would almost get hold of their equipment, the aircraft would lurch again and push the gear away from them. Along with the whirring of the engine, it made the cockpit absolute chaos.

“Lieutenant! Look up!” Marc, the pilot, called to her through the earpiece.

Marinette looked out the window and saw a shadow, some kind of bird twice the size of their aircraft. She looked up to see the figure, the details blurry with the dark shadow brought by the sun. It was bashing wind on them with its wings as the aircraft continued to shudder. The Akuma was matching the pace of the aircraft, as if waiting for them to make a move.

“Masks on! Prioritize the civilians!” She let out an anxious sigh before tapping her earpiece. “Marc, does the aircraft have a defensive system?”

“Yes, without it the wind would have slashed through the roof already.”

“I meant a system defense against attackers.”

“What?” Marc gave a nervous response.

“Blasters! Marc, blasters!”

Marinette heard fumbling and metallic clattering over her comms. “Um… There’s something here, but I don’t know what weapon. The control is beside the pilot seat.”

“Goddammit! Aren’t you supposed to know that?!” She yelled, running to the front of the aircraft while avoiding cowering civilians as well as the equipment being thrown around and her troops chasing after it.

After another strong tremble, Marinette fell on the ground, midway to the control, hitting her hip on the edge of one of the loose boxes carrying weaponry. She let out a yelp. She looked at her hip to see her suit stained red.

“Lieutenant!” A squad member hurried over to help her up before she raised her hand to stop him.

“Thank you, private, but prioritize the preparation of the equipment. I can handle myself.” Marinette forced herself up and continued running to the head of the aircraft, trying her best not to fall down, and to move besides the pain.

Once at the end of the cockpit, she swiftly opened the door to the control. “Where’s the blasters?”

“The controls for the blasters are there, and it’s the same with how you control a cannon on the mothership.”

Marinette winced at her hip as she sat down in front of the controls and put on the seatbelt.

“Lieutenant, you’re bleeding!” Marc said once he saw her wince.

“I know, Marc, nothing you can do about it. Eyes on the wheel, you don’t want to crash.”

A few taps across the controls and a hologram screen comes up, the view of where she’ll aim. “Fuck,” she said as she realized the blasters were underneath the wing.

She looked back at the cockpit through the door she just opened. Her troops finally had the equipment in their hands, and it gave her an idea.

“Rotate, upside-down,” Marinette told the pilot.

“What?!” Marc looked as her as though she told him his dog died.

She repeated herself. “Rotate the aircraft, upside-down.”

She tapped her ear piece and announced to the platoon. “Hang on guys, we’re going to do a barrel roll. Secure yourselves and the civilians.” She heard her orders being yelled around by the soldiers behind her.

“Marinette, you sure about this? The civilians—”

“Marc, trust me.”

Buttons were pressed and levers were flicked, Marc took a breath. “One, two, THREE!”

The aircraft flipped upside-down. Crashes from the back was heard, as well as a few yells, but it gave Marinette a perfect angle to shoot the shadow that was the Akuma.

Marinette pressed the button that would activate the weapon that shot… bullets. It could have been lasers or some kind of explosive, but no, it was bullets, the most primitive type of ammunition. She didn’t stop firing; Marinette was aiming for the right wing, and a hole formed in the very middle. “Yes!”

A loud screech pierced their ears. It gave Marinette something to smile at, confirming that she injured the Akuma; wincing again once the pain at her hip reminded her that a wound was still there.

“I’m rotating back,” Marc said, rotating to the original position, and letting everything behind them crash back down.

Marinette peeked outside the window and saw the shadow getting bigger, flying closer to the aircraft, the screeching getting louder as well. Marc took a hard right, but the Akuma was still able to reach them, whipping its left wing at their vehicle.

She tapped her earpiece as quick as possible. “Parachutes!”

She could almost feel the air outside pushing on them, how it unbalanced the aircraft just enough that it sent them into a free fall. Marc pressed a button that opened the cockpit, allowing those who can to jump out.

“Pull the level under the seat, it’ll activates the eject function.”

Marinette grabs the lever, propelling her and the seat to the sky. Her breath was heavy and fogged the view of her mask, but as her parachute let her hover down, she saw the aircraft crash on the planet’s surface and the explosion that came with it.

“Sergeants, report,” Marinette spoke on the comms.

Sabrina answered. “All sergeants able. Ivan and Mylene are already on the ground.”

“Update on the civilians?”

“Minimal, only soldiers were left in the aircraft and—”

Disconnected.

“Sabrina?” Marinnete looked up.

The Akuma that they shot was still flying above her, picking off people still in their parachutes one by one, each screaming just before the Akuma devoured each of them whole.

The Akuma picked off three, then seven. It gulped down twelve, then it was in front of Marinette, her turn to be eaten.

She was finally able to get a good look at the Akuma. It was the shape of an eagle, its eyes, red and without any pupils. Its feathers were silver, lustrous as the sun bounced on it, the beak, golden and red, bloody from the soldiers it just consumed. The talons were black as obsidians, with gun wounds all over, making it bleed purple. She chuckled at the thought the Akuma about to kill her probably crashed Captain Agreste’s and the other lieutenants’ aircrafts.

As it darted towards her, Marinette accepted that it was going to be her last moment. She thought, as the Akuma opened its beak, that at least now, she’ll be able to join everybody else.

She closed her eyes.

“Cataclysm!” Someone yelled right in front of her.

She waited, but there was no pain, no beak that chewed on her. Marinette opened her eyes to black dust drifting to the ground and a dozen people falling to the ground.

“Gotcha! Got you! Please don’t panic mam, you’re safe now.” A black blur dashed around the air, catching civilians and somehow managing to hold a dozen people.

Once it had grabbed each person, it stopped momentarily before a metal rod from his waist extended and slammed to the ground. The rod quickly shrunk from the top going down, with just enough speed to make sure to get people down safely.

She could barely make out the black blur, but she was sure it was a person, wearing a modified combat suit they used at the academy with shiny baton and a mask. Marinette could swear the before he ran away to the distance, the person looked up at her and smiled.

“Lieutenant? Do you copy, lieutenant?”

“Sorry, is that you on the ground Sabrina?”

“Yes Mam.”

“How is it down there?”

“No civilian causalities Mam, and it seemed whatever saved us saved our people from the crashing plane as well, but the Akuma got some of us during the free fall.”

Upon landing, it was hard to resist the temptation to kneel kiss the ground. Marinette is never going on one of those antique aircrafts ever again, if she could do something about it. She was still debating herself mentally if hugging the ground was within military decorum, when Ivan and Sabrina ran up to her.

“Update?” She asked Ivan.

“Five casualties, and we’re just right in time for another aircraft to come for extraction,” Ivan answered.

“Where are the bodies?”

Ivan pointed to her back. Five people were laid in a neat row, each missing a certain limb. The person in the far left had both his legs missing, the body next to it missing its right arm and most of its torso, the body in the very middle was missing its head, the body—

Marinette stopped looking and returned her worried gaze at Ivan.

“Sabrina was lucky she was swallowed whole, otherwise she would have died like them,” Ivan continued, “Good thing the cat saved them.”

“The cat?” Marinette furrowed her eyebrows. “Why do you call it the cat?”

“He had cat ears when he talked to us and saved us,” Sabrina replied.

“He? So, it’s a man?”

“Yes, at least we think he is. We really don’t know. He just ran away,” Ivan said.

Sabrina seemed eager to talk about her savior. “Yes Mam, he—”

They were interrupted by Mylene shouting at them. “Lieutenant! Captain Agreste is here!”

Marinette looked over her shoulder to see Mylene helping a limping Adrien Agreste, his combat suit tattered, revealing his skin, still with fresh wounds. He brought his hand up to wave and smiled at where they were standing.

She didn’t realize how much she needed a familiar face. On an impulse, Marinette smiled wide and waved back, swiftly pulling her hand back once she remembered her hip was bleeding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got to update! ((:
> 
> This is my first time writing fan fiction, so if you've read up to this far, thank you!
> 
> EDIT: Felt this chapter was a bit too short, and the third chapter I penned down was even shorter, so I just combined them.


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